My ATV was not functional for a short while today. The menu screens were constantly switched to and from a blank screen with the Apple logo.

After about half an hour with Apple's first level tech support, my issue was escalated to a higher level support. That was when I was told Apple TV server had a glitch and nothing was wrong with my unit. I was told that I need to disable my wireless router so that my ATV does not communicate with Apple's server so that I can use my ATV, if it was synced.

Luckily, the problem was fixed a couple of hours later, and my ATV started working fine again. I sure hope it won't happen again.

I was expecting my ATV to be as reliable as an appliance, such as a toaster. However, it is not the case. Since I dont' sync any music or video with my ATV, my unit was useless during the Apple's technical difficulty with its ATV server.

On another topic, I saw Costco selling ATV for about $10 less than Apple's list price. I also saw refurbished ATV for $249 at Apple's online store. It was the refurb 40 Gig HD version, not the newer 160 Gig HD version. I'd pick up another unit, if it gets down to $200.

I think the iTMS servers were getting nailed today because of iTunes 7.2. I wasn't able to connect to a few things this afternoon. I wasn't on my Apple TV today, but I would guess all that traffic was causing the trouble.